Transcript Slide 1

A history of Cuban music.
“Presentation with audio”
Xiomara Alfaro
Xiomara Alfaro was born in Havana, Cuba in 1930.
She debuted in 1951 and worked in the most popular
cabarets in Havna: Sans Souci, Tropicana and
Montmatre.
She has recorded numerous albums containing Cuban
standards as well as international songs. Many of the
selections were sung in a duet with her husband,
Rafael Benitez. She recorded at least 12 albums and
currently resides in the U.S., where she continues to
perform.
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Zoraida Marrero
Zoraida Marrero was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1911.
She performed in the Cuban Nights show at Carnegie
Hall, which brought together many of the stars of
Cuban music in exile.
She was the first star to perform at Liborio, the most
renowned Cuban cabaret in New York during the
1960s.
She died in New Jersey in 2003.
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Fernando Albuerne
Fernando Albuerne was born on October 28,
1920 in the town of Sagua de Tánamo, Oriente
province, in Cuba. An accomplished singer, he
began touring the United States in 1947. In
Cuba he was associated with the Radio Suaritos
radio station until 1954.
After the Castro dictatorship came to power in
1959, he was exiled to Caracas, Venezuela, and
later moved to Miami, where he stopped
performing. He died in Caracas in 2000.
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Olga Chorens & Tony Alvarez
This duet consisted of Olga Chorens, who was born in
Havana in 1924, and Tony Alvarez, also born in Havana
in 1919.
They were known as Olga and Tony and were married
in 1946. Between 1951 and 1954 they were wildly
successful radio and TV personalities in Havana.
In 1960 the couple was exiled to Puerto Rico, where
they continued their musical career with a repertoire
of Cuban and international songs. There they also
started a new TV show. Tony died at the age of 83 on
March 19, 2001.
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Pérez Prado
Pérez Prado was born on December 11, 1916 in the
province of Mantanzas, Cuba.
He popularlized the mambo and made it a worldwide
sensation. Although it was the brainchild of several
musicians, Dámaso Pérez Prado was the one who is
credited with its popular introduction.
He was also the first Hispanic artist to reach #1 on the
Billboard chart and he stayed in that spot for 26 weeks
with the song entitled “Cerezo Rosa.”
He died in Mexico on September 13, 1989 at the age of
73.
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Celina & Reutilio
Celina González was born in 1928 in Matanzas, Cuban.
Reutilio Domínguez was born in Guantánamo in 1921.
He was a guitarist, composer and singer.
The couple married in 1943 and they performed
together until they separated in 1964. Reutilio died in
1971. Between 1964 and 1980 Celina González
pursued a solo career.
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Marisela Verena
Marisela Verena was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba in
1951.
She has been singing and writing music for more than
40 decades. Regardless of whether she resides in Spain,
Puerto Rico or Miami, her Cuban roots stay intact; her
voice is warm and firm, and her songs stir deep
emotions for her audience.
Few artists have been able to capture the essence of
exile like Marisela Verena.
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Matamoros Trio
Matamoros Trio.
This is the most influential and popular threesome
in Cuban music. It was started in 1925 by Miguel
Matamoros, Siro Rodríguez and Rafael Cueto.
From the beginning the band had a unique sound,
the “bolero-son”, a music rich in harmony but with
the strong rhythm of the son.
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Guillermo Portabales
Guillermo Portabeles was born in Las Villas, Cuba in
1911.
He was a signer, songwriter and guitar player who
popularized the Cuban country style, or “guajiro”
music, from the 1930s to the 1960s. His languid and
elegant style made him popular throughout Latin
America.
In 1953 he moved to Puerto Rico where he continued
his career until his life ended tragically at the age of
59 in a car accident in 1970.
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Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was born in Santiago, Cuba in 1917.
He was a member of the Xavier Cuga band in New
York. He popularized the conga in the U.S. He was a
musician, comedian and actor who starred in the hit
show “I Love Lucy” with his wife, Lucille Ball.
He died in California in 1986.
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Enrique Chia
Enrique Chia is an accomplished pianist who was born
in Las Villas, Cuba. As a child he studied piano.. In
1961 he was exiled to the United States where he
earned his Ph.D. in metallurgy at the Georgia Institute
of Technology, “Georgia Tech”.
He is an accomplished pianist whose mellifluous skill
is known worldwide. He lives in Alabama and
continues to tour throughout the world.
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Olga Guillot
Olga Guillot was born in Santiago, Cuba in 1922.
In 1963 she was awarded the Golden Palm in
Hollywood, California.
She was a renowned singer and had the distinction of
being the first Cuban and Hispanic to sing at Carnegie
Hall in New York.
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Rolando Laserie
Rolando Laserie was born in Santa Clara, Cuba in
1923.
He earned his fame with his incomparable boleros,
“guarachas” and “son”. His trademark raspy voice
and aggressive lyrics earned him the nickname “The
Tough Guy of Song.”
Rolando dies in Coral Gables, Florida in November,
1998.”
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Willy Chirino
He was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1947 and went into
exile in Operation Peter Pan.
He is an internationally renowned singer, composer,
songrwriter and producer.
His autobiographical “Our Day is Near” describes the
journey of a child forced to re start his life alone 90 miles
from the shores of his native Cuba and is the anthem for
all freedom-thirsting Cubans.
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Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estéfan was born in Havana in 1957.
This five time Grammy winner is an accomplished
singer and songrwriter and the Queen of Latin Pop
music.
Gloria and her husband, Emilio, married in 1978 and
started the Miami Sound Machine. They have two
children.
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Celia Cruz
Celia Cruz was born in Havana in 1925.
The Cuban songstress spent most of her life living and
performing in the United States. She married Pedro
Knight, who was a trombone player in her band, the
“Sonora Matancera.”
Celia was one of the most successful Cuban and
Hispanic singers of the 20th Century known by her
trademark: “Azúcar!”, a testament to her philosophy of
life and her Cuban roots.
She died in her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey in 2003.
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Carlos Vidal
ayuda musical.
The End
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